"Helping You Become Mobile" This blog contains information on Prosthetics & Orthotics to include examples of artificial limbs and orthopedic braces. We will try to be a goto resource for the prosthetic and orthotic user along with following our "on the road experiences". Our specialty is In-Home Prosthetic & Orthotic Services
Brace is to be positioned in shoe with the insole on top of the brace foot plate.This is for comfort and protection.
When placing foot in shoe, insure toes don’t curl and lay flat as possible.When placing sock on foot leave extra material at end so it doesn’t pull toes when placing shoe on.
Make sure heel is down in the back of shoe.
Tie shoe or tighten Velcro closures snuggly to hold foot in shoe.
Move foot to rear while sitting in chair.This will bring front of brace against the leg for the best fit.
Wrap Velcro around leg to secure brace to leg.
Wearing a tall sock, such as a tube sock or knee high may be more comfortable and will keep the brace liner cleaner.
The soft liner can be removed to be hand washed and air dried.
The brace will not be damaged if it gets wet. Just towel it off and let air dry.
Check for sore spots on the skin of the foot and leg daily.Red spots may be present and should go away in about 20 minutes.If not, then an adjustment will be needed. Please contact Mobile Limb & Brace, Inc.
BREAK IN:Wear brace for 1 hour, then remove and check for sore areas.Leave off for two hours, then put back on for 1 hour, and repeat.Keep increasing wear time by 1 hour each time until you can wear it all day.
The brace is not to be worn in bed.
Craig R. DeCamp, Certified Orthotist and Prosthetist
Here is a link to a video of an amazing individual. It shows what a person can accomplish if they have the will and determination, not to mention faith. There are hundreds, if not thousands of stories like this around the world. I work with people on a daily basis that have a hard enough time just standing and walking. Some have physical limitations but a lot of what I see is just lack of confidence in themselves and uncertainty. Hopefully this story will motivate and inspire those who view it.
The following is an article from the O&P business news dealing with a common ailment of thet foot and ankle complex: Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction.
August 1, 2008
Through the Stages: Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction
Though often overlooked, posterior tibial tendon dysfunction causes severe pain and deformity in affected adults.
By Stephanie Z. Pavlou
When his mother began experiencing pain and signs of flatfoot, Bill Meanwell, CPed, learned that she had posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD), a condition he often sees in patients. As a pedorthic educator at the International School of Pedorthics in Broken Arrow, Okla., he naturally began looking for the best therapy for her condition.
The condition
To properly treat the condition, one first must understand the pathology. Meanwell offers an anatomy lesson: The tibialis posterior muscle attaches to the navicular, where it feeds out like fingers and grabs almost the entire midfoot. The posterior tibial tendon supports the foot’s arch and turns the foot medially.
“Once that is gone, it just has a devastating effect on gait, foot position, everything,” he said.
The role of the posterior tibial tendon is as the primary inverter of the foot, which works against the everters of the foot.
“They should work in harmony,” Meanwell said. “In this case, the harmony is gone.”
He explained the foot’s transformation from an inverted position to a pes planus position.
“Once the foot turns its position, instead of walking over the end of your foot, you are walking over the side of your foot and propelling off the medial edge, not through the tip of the hallux,” Meanwell told O&P Business News. “It dramatically changes the way you walk and function.”
Although PTTD develops over time, the actual rupture will show pathological signs, said Paul A. Chromey, DPM, CPed, pedorthic educator, anatomy instructor in pedorthics at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine in Philadelphia, and owner/operator of Northeast Pedorthic Services. When the tendon ruptures, the talus bone plantarflexes, adducts and moves anteriorly, collapsing the longitudinal arch.
“This places tremendous tension on the spring ligament,” he said.
The tension then causes the joint to abduct and the calcaneus bone to evert, resulting in a flatfoot.
It is rare, however, to have an actual spontaneous rupture on the tibialis posterior muscle, Chromey said. The most common cause of rupture is chronic or acute stress on a tendon that is already degenerated, attenuated or weakened.
Stages of PTTD
At the time of diagnosis, patients will fall into one of four definitive stages of PTTD. Few patients notice symptoms in stage 1, and so few are diagnosed early. Although there may be some swelling along the course of the tendon, radiographs show no signs of dysfunction.
In stage 2, patients with PTTD start to notice some pain and inflammation along the tendon sheath, a sign of tendonitis. Patients also can detect an increased flattening of the medial arch, which causes the forefoot to abduct on the rear of the foot. This symptom often is referred to as having “too many toes” — a view from behind the patient’s foot shows that the ankle curves inward and more of the toes are visible from the outside. Radiographs reveal decreased arch height, as well as subluxed tail and navicular joints.
In stage 4 of posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD), there is a complete valgus collapse of the talus bone, possibly resulting in necrotic ulcerations along that mid-arch collapse.
All images reprinted with permission of Paul A. Chromey, DPM, CPed.
By the time patients enter stage three, they already have experienced considerable deformity and weakness in their feet, accompanied by significant pain, explained Erick Janisse, CO, CPed, vice president of National Pedorthic Services Inc. in St. Louis.
According to Chromey, patients in this classification will have a rigid flatfoot on the hindfoot. Radiographs in this stage show arthritic changes in the tarsal joints.
Stage 4 of PTTD — which is now severe flatfoot — signals the dysfunction’s end stage. Radiographs reveal a complete valgus collapse of the talus bone, Chromey said, possibly resulting in necrotic ulcerations along that mid-arch collapse. Patients experience substantial pain caused by the tendon failure and subsequent destructive changes in the joints.
“By the time they get to stage 4 … there is not a whole lot that pedorthists can do for them,” Janisse said.
Diagnosing PTTD
Another diagnostic symptom of PTTD is that patients are unable to invert the affected heel, and so pedorthists may ask their patients to perform the heel rise test.
Meanwell uses a single-sided heel raise for classification. Patients in stage 2 or stage 3 of PTTD are unable to balance on one foot and raise their bodies on that foot. At this point, he also finds that patients feel tenderness and the beginnings of structural deformity in that area, as well as possible bony prominences on the medial side as the foot starts to lose its normal or proper shape, he said.
Magnetic resonance imaging is another viable option for diagnosis, and will reveal rupture of the tibialis posterior tendon. Radiographs only reveal a unilateral flatfoot.
Causative factors
Associated with adult acquired flatfoot, PTTD occurs in adults, and usually begins in middle- and upper-middle age. Stage 4 deformity is seen most often in the geriatric population.
Several issues may contribute to weakening the posterior tibial tendon: tenosynovitis, or a chronic inflammation of the tendon sheath; collagen disorders like scleroderma or gout; and repeated corticosteroid injections.
According to Meanwell, the causes of PTTD run the gamut from predisposition through excessive pronation. Also, as with his mother, many of the affected patients are women older than 50 years old.
“It has to do with menopause and osteoporosis changes that women go through in menopause,” he said.
Although typically developing over many years, trauma may jump-start this condition as well. Some patients report feeling the muscle tear after falling from a distance.
“Quite often we see this occur in an automobile accident,” Meanwell said. “Somebody puts on the brake and locks his leg. There is no shock absorbed in the knee, the foot hyper-dorsiflexes and boom, you have this trauma effect to the muscle.”
Lower Extremity Cadaver Lab: Let’s Reproduce a Flatfoot
An attenuation or rupture of the posterior tibial tendon cannot itself lead to the adult acquired flatfoot deformity that a pedorthist sees in older adults with a progressive flatfoot deformity. As the flatfoot deformity progresses, significant ligamentous rupture has occurred, which includes the spring ligament, superficial deltoid ligament, the plantar fascia and both the long and short plantar ligaments.
Our goal in the cadaver lab is to take both flatfoot and normal arch foot specimens and attempt to release their anatomical structures, so as to objectively reproduce a flatfoot. Only then can we evaluate and recognize those various levels of ligamentous rupture and apply them clinically to those stages of an adult acquired flatfoot (AAF) deformity. The pedorthist will then recognize how to support that level of ligamentous rupture for the AAF.
Clinical category
Knowing what level or clinical category of AAF has developed will enhance the conservative approaches available to treat this entity.
For past 2 years, participating pedorthists and I have had the opportunity to attend an advanced pedorthic course sponsored by the Pedorthic Footwear Association and held at the Cadaver Lab Room at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine in Philadelphia. There we had had access to more than 40 available cadavers. We carefully selected those cadavers that had a somewhat normal arch appearance and other cadavers that had an obvious flatfoot or low arch. The goal was to release or sever via sharp dissection with a #15 scalpel blade several ligamentous structures in an attempt to recreate and witness the occurrence of a flatfoot. After dissecting 16 obvious flatfoot specimens lead me to the conclusion that the posterior tibial tendon was, in fact, the last anatomical structure to attenuate or weaken its longitudinal fibers.
The structures we discovered that preceded the flatfoot were attenuation of the spring ligament fibers, the superficial deltoid fibers, the plantar fascia along with both the long and short plantar ligaments. After dissecting a total of 22 cadavers normal-appearing arches, I noticed that the severing of a combination of the long and short plantar ligaments, the plantar fascia and the superficial bands of the deltoid (medial) ligament resulted in a sagging, lowering, and collapse of the talonavicular joint, thus exposing the head of the talus and navicular bone base.
Flatfoot deformity
We had recreated a flatfoot deformity. Furthermore, it is at this level with real patients we now can understand that pronatory forces and weight along the tendon course and insertion of the posterior tibial tendon will cause a posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) or actual attenuation of the posterior tibial tendon.
In addition, what compounds this created problem lies in the fact that, after studying and documenting this entity since 2004, we found that it is aggravated by the existence of the shorter limb, i.e., a limb length discrepancy of ½" or greater on the shorter side.
In the pedorthic management and treatment of an older patient who is overpronating, the foot/ankle complex on the shorter leg will develop stages of problems. From an isolated single flatfoot with posterior tibial tendonitis to extreme ankle torsion or medial ankle valgus with bony prominences along the medial malleolus, talonavicular joint and severe attenuation of the posterior tibial tendon that threatens potential for a rupture to occur.
Daily activities
In conclusion, following a 2-year cadaver lab study involving 40 cadaver foot specimens, we found that over many years, walking and other daily activities apply huge forces to the shorter extremity causing overpronation, joint stretching, and tendon and ligament lengthening. This effect will influence the talonavicular joint to lower and eventually collapse, causing a symptomatic single flatfoot. Both in the cadaver lab and with patients, we observe that the “sling-like” tendon insertion of the posterior tibial tendon will support the flatfoot deformity up to the point of rupture.
It is the role of the pedorthist to know the clinical stages and at what stage the patient presents with, in an effort to control any stage of AFF. The hallmark of middle- to late-stage care still is an ankle-foot orthosis in management of AFF and PTTD.
– Paul A. Chromey, DPM, CPed, pedorthic educator and instructor of cadaver lab at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine in Philadelphia and owner/operator of Northeast Pedorthic Services in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Research over the years
Chromey’s research and literary review have demonstrated that PTTD dates back to discussion in the early 1970s, although the four categories were not determined until 1984 by Mueller. Johnson and Strom linked the tendon pathology to both clinical and radiograph findings 5 years later; and, in 1992, Holmes and Mann realized that more than half of patients with an adult acquired flatfoot had diabetes, hypertension or obesity, or some combination of those.
In 2004, Chromey and pedorthic alumni at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine Cadaver Lab linked PTTD incidence to patients who developed at least a one-half inch shorter leg over the course of their lifetimes. In these cases, the tendons attenuated because of the patients’ overpronation, which resulted in the unilateral flatfoot in the shorter extremity in more than 80% of the patients studied. See “Lower Extremity Cadaver Lab: Let’s Reproduce a Flat Foot” on page 28 fpr more information.
Practitioners also should identify other contributing factors, such as obesity and diabetes, as well as any history of knee replacements or hip fractures that could cause shortening of the leg.
In addition to the symptoms of PTTD, this dysfunction also causes pain in other areas of the body, including the back, hips and knees. Once pedorthic intervention is able to realign the patient, many of the secondary joint issues are improved as well.
Treatment methods
Once the foot becomes rigid, it is necessary to fit patients with ankle-foot orthoses and custom shoes.
Practitioners may vary in their treatment methods for tendon dysfunctions. Chromey follows the school of thought that as long as the foot remains flexible, the patient should be treated with a functional orthotic. In the first two stages of PTTD, the traditional orthosis controls the foot in stance phase, which indirectly stabilizes the ankle on the tibia.
Once the foot becomes rigid, however, Chromey believes it is necessary to graduate to an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO). He employs various AFOs to directly control the ankle and the tibia, assisting the foot from stance phase through swing phase.
Meanwell finds that an accommodative orthosis is necessary once a patient reaches the second stage of tendon breakdown. This intervention offers additional support for any bony prominences that have developed on the medial side.
In stage 3, Meanwell recommends that pedorthists fit their patients with a subtalar-control foot orthosis (SCFO), which holds the foot in position and prevents further deformity.
Once patients reach stage 4 rigidity, the only pedorthic option is to fit with custom shoes. At that point, the orthopedic surgeon also can decide to surgically repair the tendon.
Surgery never is the ideal scenario, however.
“To fix the underlying deformity is a big surgery,” Janisse said. “We like to help people avoid surgery whenever we can.
“I think the more aggressive you are, the better your chances of avoiding surgery.”
Chromey impresses on his patients that wearing an AFO may not be a lifetime commitment. With aggressive initial treatment and the proper footwear, he said, pedorthists can decrease pain, improve mobility and even prevent future rupture.
Whether an orthotic or orthosis is prescribed, the treatment is only as good as the footwear that they wear, Chromey insists.
“We emphasize the proper extra-wide, extra-depth orthopedic footwear with a rocker sole,” he said. “It is an essential component of the three-point force system. The shoe provides that final component.”
Pedorthists then can modify the footwear as necessary with heel lifts or lateral wedging.
Working with patients
Janisse compares PTTD to a rope fraying, with no real way to mend it.
“It stretches and elongates and just sort of gets weak,” he said. “There is no orthotic device that can make the tendon whole or strong again. At that stage the orthotic is basically compensating for the loss of strength in the tendon.”
Chromey and his team linked PTTD incidence to patients who developed at least a ½" shorter leg during the course of their lifetimes.
Patients who exhibit flatfoot or hyperpronation — symptoms of the first stages of PTTD — may not be treated for this dysfunction, as these conditions may stand alone. Instead, practitioners may fit with an orthotic.
“Once you get into tendonitis, the abnormalities and bony structures, then it becomes much easier [to diagnose] because it is so blatantly obvious that there is a unilateral issue,” Meanwell said.
He advises practitioners to be prepared for fights with patients — females especially.
“I hate to blame it on one gender, but it does tend to go that way,” Meanwell said. “‘What do you mean I can’t wear high heels?’ That becomes a bit of an argument.”
Meanwell cites Janisse’s father, Dennis Janisse, CPed, and his 2-hour shoe compromise: If his patients wear their orthotics, AFOs and custom shoes on a consistent basis, he permits them to wear a dress shoe for a couple hours during social activities.
To counteract these disagreements, Meanwell stresses the importance of listening to patients.
“Understand their feelings … and work with them as an ally and not as an enemy,” he said.
He instituted this strategy when fitting his mother for custom shoes. He went to Karen Lanier at Branier Orthopedics with photos of his mother’s condition and asked Lanier to help him design shoes — ones that looked as much like his mother’s favorite Keds sneakers as possible.
Practitioners should remember that treating PTTD is as easy as looking for the patients’ symptoms, Chromey said.
“We need to listen to our patients, look at the abnormal [wear patterns] on the soles of their shoes, and we need to start measuring legs to see just how much shorter they are,” he said. “There are tremendous benefits to balancing everybody.”
The following question was posted on the O&P listserve in reference to wearing a prosthesis on a roller coaster. A list of answers and comments it generated are also included:
Dear Colleagues:
I have had two patients who wear a lower extremity prosthesis come to me in the past three weeks asking me to provide a statement (affidavit?) guaranteeing that their prosthesis will not fall off while they are riding various rides at a high profile amusement park. In thirty-one years, I have never had a request like this. I was most recently provided a list (from the park) of all the rides, followed by this statement:
"Rides (X) and (Y): Manufacturer requires that guests with prosthetic devices must provide documentation from the manufacturer of their prosthetic device guaranteeing that the prosthetic device has been designed to remain in place on a high speed roller coaster ride exceeding a maximum speed of 120 MPH...with maximum G forces from -1.5 Gs to 5 Gs with a sufficient safety factor for single point failure items."
Has anyone dealt with this yet? Have any of you provided a prosthesis specifically "designed to remain in place on a roller coaster ride?" Would an insurance company consider that "medically necessary, or a convenience item?
What is a "single point failure item??"
Although I can appreciate the importance of amusement parks addressing and minimizing their high liability, what with children getting their feet and heads chopped off recently on the rides, I, for one, am not comfortable going out on a limb and guaranteeing that ANY prosthetic suspension system is absolutely fail-safe, (at 5 Gs no less!). You cannot imagine how badly I felt when I had to decline the requests of these young men, but, Hey......what could I do?
So, esteemed list-serve members, if you have any suggestions, I am all ears.
Summer's not over yet!
Thank you,
Barry Steineman, CPO/L
Toledo, Ohio
I was asked to post responses on my query: Has anyone been asked to guarantee prosthetic suspension at 120 mph and 5 Gs on an amusement park ride?
Many thanks to all who replied.
Barry, tell the two lower limb patients to wear long pants and avoid the whole embarrassing situation. That's what I do and it works fine.
Sounds like discrimination or BS to me. Do they require a statement from the earring, pants, and shoe manufacturers, especially the cowboy boot guys? Seriously. Do they? If not, why not?
Barry, I have written a few letters for patients who attend Cedar Point. The purpose of the letter is to assure the it is very unlikely a prosthesis would come off during a ride based on the suspension systems being used. I also advise the patient to use extra suspension when participating in such activities. (TES Belts and such.)
I am a BK amputee, and have gone to King's Island near Cincinnati many times in my life, but won't be going back there anytime soon. There are signs on some rides stating that you cannot ride with flip-flops, sandals, braces, casts, prosthetic limbs, etc. So, my approach to this is to just take my leg off (a simple task of just slipping the leg off, and leaving the liner on my
leg) and leave the leg with everyone's sandals while I ride the ride. When the ride is over, I just have to step into the leg and I'm on my way to the next one (like Face Off where your feet are dangling during the ride). The wonderful employee there would not let me ride the coaster because I "had a prosthetic leg", but I educated her on the fact that I wasn't wearing a prosthetic leg, just like everyone else that "had" flip-flops and left them sitting there with my leg during the ride. She didn't seem to get it (and probably didn't get much of anything, not the sharpest person I have ever talked to).
Anyway, the manager had to come to her rescue (at my demand and refusing to get off the ride), and he agreed that if I was not wearing the leg on the ride,
then it doesn't matter whether I had a prosthetic leg or not. I rode the
ride, but can't say that I enjoyed it much after that commotion and frustration.
That happened over and over at that park, it sucked and I won't be going back.
At Universal Studios in Orlando, there are a few rides where your feet also dangle, and they were very cooperative with me and even offered to take my leg for me, allowing me to sit on the ride, and then they would take it over to the side and put it with the shoes and other items that were being left behind. I would make a joke of it, telling them to not "let it run off" on me while I was on the ride, and everyone around could hear that, and everyone was dying laughing. It just so happens that the Dueling Dragons is one of my favorite coasters there, and that is the ride where a few years ago, a BK amputee claims to have lost his leg while on that ride. He claims that it fell off and went sailing in to some lake or water area. The employees searched for hours all around that ride, in all the ponds and water, and never found the leg. Of course he sued the park and forced them to buy him a new leg. I followed that story closely and also talked to the people at the park shortly after this incident was in the news, and they said that they have some video of this guy coming into the park with no leg, and also the employees seemed to remember him getting on the ride using crutches, but they could not 100% recall that for sure. Anyway, the park paid something huge to him to get a new leg, and also for the pain and suffering caused to him for having to go the rest of the day and the coming weeks with no leg. There are a lot of other damning issues for this amputee, like they could not provide other records that even show the last time he had gotten a leg that were not more than like 10 years old. It seems to me that this guy pulled this stunt just to get someone with deep pockets to just pay the money and keep it out of the news as much as possible. It is the fault of people like this that end up screwing up the entire system for everyone else.
At Disney world, they are more than accommodating for people with
"disabilities", even though I don't consider myself disabled.
I have never had anyone ask me (as a CP) to provide anything like this, and if I was asked, I could not do it. There is NO way to guarantee that a leg won't fly off when riding some of these rides. There are just some things in life that are not "fair" or accessible to everyone. And I hope that they never are forced to build some theme parks with rides that "EVERYONE" could ride on. There is no such ride out there. Not even a simple train ride will meet everyone's demands or special needs, and I am sure that someone would come up with some crazy reason why they are being discriminated against because they can't ride something like that.
Anyway, most parks I have been to (which are many) have been great to me, but King's Island takes the cake for being the worst park ever when it comes to employees and their understanding of their rules and the special needs of the guests. There was no reason for me to have all the problems that I had, like Face Off, the Drop Zone, and 2 others, where I literally took my leg off and was still told that I could not ride it because I have a prosthetic
leg....but I was not wearing the leg, and they couldn't get it. I am not saying
anything racial here, but all these employees seemed to be from the ghettos of Cincinnati that I was dealing with. I have never experienced this any other place in my life, but that's not so say that it doesn't happen other places either.
Tell the patient to either take the leg off, if at all possible, and then ride the rides. That works for me, and I don't mind that at all. Even at Epcot (Disney world Florida) the ride "Soarin" is a ride where my feet are dangling, but not moving fast or pulling G's, but I still take it off so that I don't have to worry about it falling off during the ride and hitting someone below me, or freaking people out.
Like everything else, they just want to transfer liability. If you made the prosthesis, it really does not matter, if it came off, you would be included in the law suit.
A further question to your line of inquiry might be "how does one go about testing that their suspension is adequate under those circumstances?" I suspect that there might be ethical issues involved in sticking your clients into centrifuges etc. in order to test their interface. One might pose that question to the park requiring the documentation. Still, gives a new twist on "keep arms and legs inside the car at all times," no?
Very best of luck to you and your thrill-seeking clients.
I had such a request last year. I typed a quick memo and faxed it to the park so that my client could enjoy the day at the park with his family. You are liable 100%, 100% of the time anyway
Cathryn "Cat" Hammes is often heard before she is seen, and then she isn't in sight for very long. A blur of pink leather and chrome, Hammes fell in love with the rumble of Harley-Davidson motorcycles on her very first ride, and she hasn't stopped cruising since.
Cat Hammes leads the pack at an Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) fundraiser in May.
In the spirit of the fabled motorcycles that she rides, Hammes is as tough and resilient as her ivory and chrome Fat Boy®. She took that bike on a 9,000-mile trek in 2005, exploring the far reaches of Canada, and when the weather allows she can be seen—and heard—riding that same bike around the town of Racine, Wisconsin. Hammes' Fat Boy had to be rebuilt after a serious accident in 2006, and much of Hammes' body had to be rebuilt too. Her friends say she is stronger for it.
"The fact is that she don't [kid] you," says friend Jeff Gustin, who did the work on Hammes' bike after the accident. "She'll tell you, If you don't like it, you never have to talk to me again.' She's not going to hide anything from you, and if you can't accept her for who she is, then don't even bother. That spirit has come out even more since the accident."
The Spring of 2006
Working the third shift at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital near Milwaukee, Hammes was one of only a few nurses allowed into the room of one particular patient. The man was a biker, and he reminded Hammes of her older brother, the one who first took her out for a motorcycle ride. Hammes and the sick man developed a bond, and when he passed away late one night in the early spring of 2006, Hammes says she couldn't sleep.
When the sun finally rose, and the air warmed enough, Hammes hopped on her bike and headed to see her mother and tap into her wealth of wisdom. "It was one of the first days when you could ride without a sweatshirt, and I had to hash out my thoughts with my mom," Hammes says. "It was about noon and I was heading to her house when a van pulled out of a liquor store. I woke up a few weeks later."
On the scene of the accident, Hammes suffered multiple skull fractures, and the rescue crew did a remarkable job of keeping her alive long enough to be transported to the hospital where she worked. Her leg was not salvageable. Hammes was 41 at the time, the mother of three, and her condition was serious for a number of weeks after the accident.
Back in the Saddle
Nearly a month later, Hammes spoke her first words, and what she said made it clear to everyone that she would soon pull through. "I think that's when my kids knew I would be OK, when I woke up and started talking about motorcycles," she says. "Getting back on my bike was the driving force behind my recovery. I knew if I could get back on my bike that I could be better. It was very cathartic, very healing."
The challenges were only beginning for Hammes, who isn't one to back down from anything or anyone. But the obstacles over the next ten months or so would test Hammes like never before. She underwent more than a dozen surgeries, including a second, higher amputation on her injured limb. In an effort to get her mobility back she tried about ten or 11 different prosthetic feet and a variety of vacuum and suspension systems, but nothing worked and everything was painful. "I would be riding alone in the middle of nowhere and lose vacuum," Hammes says. "Trying to hold up a 600-pound bike like that is the scariest feeling in the world."
Sandra Faulkner, a middle school teacher in Racine, has been on rides with Hammes when the vacuum failed. "Every time she would get a new leg she would tip her bike. She would do it once, and then she would be good," says Faulkner, whose husband is a distant relative of novelist William Faulkner. "She might tip on a corner, but she was always willing to get right back on and go.... Cat has an extremely positive spirit, and she has been through a lot in her lifetime. She has goals for herself, she's a good person, and she is always willing to tell you her opinion—good or bad. She is always the one encouraging me to get out there and try new things. I was avoiding traffic on my bike, but she started coaxing me to get into more high-traffic areas."
Free Spirit
Hammes was raised by a hardworking family in the Midwest. She says she married too soon and a few years later found herself undereducated and divorced with young children to care for. She always had an interest in medicine, but she didn't know how to break into a related career. One thing was certain: she would find some way to earn a living. "Not working in my family is not acceptable," she says. "If you're not dying, you better be going to work."
Hammes took a job selling car parts to put herself through nursing school, where she made the dean's list. She worked at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, spent time in the ER and trauma units of a local hospital, and eventually landed at Froedtert. Hammes was, astoundingly, terminated from her position at the hospital while on medical leave following the accident. But like so many of the other difficult situations in her life, Hammes just gets back on the bike and rides. "I'm not sure what I want to do when I grow up," Hammes says.
On the Horizon
Hammes says the toughest job she has ever had was raising toddlers. Her kids are grown now, all in their early 20s, and she says she has just about mastered her second-toughest job-finding the right prosthetic system. "The biggest thing for me was getting into a decent foot," Hammes says. "I'm always out on uneven ground at rallies. I have dogs and like being outside. The majority of my time is not spent walking around on even ground."
Hammes found Ray McKinney, CPO, McKinney Prosthetics LLC, Gurnee, Illinois, at just the right time. "Ray was my last ditch," Hammes says. "It was either I was going to find him or I was going to go upstairs and find a .357. And I'm not a quitter, but it had come to that point."
This spring, Hammes marked the second anniversary of her accident the same way she marked the first anniversary.. .with a benefit fundraiser motorcycle ride sponsored by the Amputee Coalition of America (ACA). "I didn't want to do something negative; I wanted to do something positive," says Hammes.
Karen Ketchum, Rodney Jimenez, and Rachel Cantrell (of George Ade Memorial Health Care Therapy Dept.)at Hazelton Country Club in Brook; In supporting the Brook Area Chamber of Commerce Southern Newton County Scholarship program. They were joined by Craig DeCamp of Mobile Limb & Brace, Inc. We didn't come in first but we did have fun.
Scientists in England are performing research toward making prostheses feel as if they are part of the wearer's body. In a study to be presented at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition this week, the research team investigated the results of electrically stimulating volunteers' skin with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machines in order to 'trick' the brain into recognizing an artificial limb as its own. TENS machines are most commonly used for the relief of chronic pain, according to the BBC Health website.
The team hails from the Centre for Pain Research, Leeds Metropolitan University (Leeds Met), Leeds, England, and includes Mark Johnson PhD, PGCHE. Johnson reported to Medical News Today that they are attempting to stimulate nerve pathways associated with phantom pain using mild electrical currents that the brain may perceive as coming from the limb itself. He said, "Our experiments are designed to see whether we can make the sensation of TENS feel like it comes from a prosthetic hand in people with intact limbs. This will help us decide on the best design for a clinical trial in amputees." The research may allow prosthesis users to control their appliances with more finesse and sense of connection to the world.
"We are also trying to find out how useful TENS could be for phantom limb pain," Johnson added. "By adjusting the amplitude of TENS currents, we can activate the same nerves that we activate when we rub pain better. This stops messages about tissue damage getting to the brain and this reduces pain. This could help the 80 percent or so of amputees that experience pain in the limb that is now missing."
Describing the study's success, Johnson said, "We can create a very strong illusion that a rubber hand belongs to you, to the extent that you might try to move it as if its your own hand. It's even possible to make a table or a book feel like part of a body. It's just an illusion of course, but it shows us how the brain tries to make sense of the world from the information it receives, and how we might be able to use this to help people adjust more quickly to using an artificial limb." Visitors to the team's exhibit at the Summer Science Exhibition can try the experience themselves, using the research equipment to manipulate their brains into temporarily "adopting" a rubber hand of their own.
The easiest way to put the brace on is to lie in bed and place the leg in the brace as it is outstretched.
Having the knee joint unlocked will help in getting the leg positioned.
It is OK to put the brace on over pants. The thinner the pant, the more comfortable it will be. (Less wrinkles)
To unlock the knee joints, pull up on the lever on each joint face, then rotate the top of the lever toward the knee and this will lock it in place and keep the joints unlocked.
Each strap should be pulled comfortably snug so as to hold the leg firmly once in the standing position.
BEFORE standing, rotate the lever locks outward. This will engage the ratchets so as you begin to stand the locks catch and prevent your knee from buckling.
You can straighten the leg before standing but this will make it harder to get into the standing position.
You can also go to the sitting position without unlocking the joints, just have the brace leg positioned forward before going backward to sit.
If you can not unlock the levers it is probably because there is tension on the knee joint.If you lift up on the heel or put pressure behind the heel this should take the pressure off the knee joint so it can be unlocked.
Always wear shoe gear with brace since the bottom is slick, plus the shoe hold the foot and ankle in the brace.
Wearing a tall sock may be more comfortable.
Clean the brace with rubbing alcohol or a warm wash cloth.
Sprinkling baby powder in the brace also helps with odors.
Always check for red mark on the skin after removing the brace.You will most likely have some, but they should go away in 15 to 20 minutes. If they stay longer you are getting too much pressure and an adjustment will need to be made to relieve it.
The Velcro straps may need to be replaced every year or two.
Padding can be replaced as needed.
Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions.This brace is a new experience to you and will take some getting used to. It is also very adjustable.
I often lose my balance and fall several times a day or week.
5
I am pregnant or expecting to become pregnant.
5
I have significant contractures (i.e. extreme muscle tightness) at the ankle, knee and/or hip.
5
I have discussed the possibility of using functional electrical stimulation with my physician and was told it was not indicated because of other medical conditions.
5
I do little to no walking. I only stand to transfer from the bed to a chair or the chair to the toilet.
4
I have been diagnosed with foot drop by my doctor.
0
My foot drop is related to a stroke, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, incomplete spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or other neurological condition.
0
I am unable to lift my foot effectively during walking, which forces me to
drag the foot or engage in a high-stepping gait.
0
I occasionally stumble because my foot does not always lift up at the correct time during walking.
0
I have discussed the possibility of using functional electrical stimulation for walking with my physician and they support my interest.
0
Walking with my current orthopedic devices (AFOs, canes, walkers, etc.) is very tiring, requiring me to rest often or not participate in many activities.
0
Total Score…
If your score is 4 or LESS, the WalkAide may be right for you.
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þThe WalkAide has been cleared for market by the FDA and is effective for some people with certain types of physical limitations.
þInsurance companies presently do not cover the cost of this new medical technology.
þYou can also learn more about the WalkAide by visiting the WalkAide website at www.Walkaide.com
